Article
Matthew Eisman/Getty Images
Grammar,

Front Row Seats to a Volcanic Eruption

When this volcano erupted last year, people got a chance to see it up close.

From the February 2022 Issue
Common Core Standards
  • Anchor Standards
    L.3
  • Grade 6
    L.6.3
  • Grade 7
    L.7.3
  • Grade 8
    L.8.3
TEKS Standards
  • Grades 6, 7, 8
    2b, 10c, 10d (ix)

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Directions

On your own document, circle the correct word in each bolded group.

Hint

Do you need an apostrophe with that s?

Use an apostrophe to show possession. For a singular noun, the apostrophe goes before the s (Jill’s room). For a plural noun, it goes after the s (the girls’ room).

Do NOT use an apostrophe to form a plural (our three cats).

Jeremie Richard/ AFP via Getty Images

For Icelanders/ Icelander’s/Icelanders’, volcanoes are part of life. Iceland is only about the size of Kentucky—and it has about 130 volcanoes. Why so many? Iceland sits atop an underwater mountain chain made up of giant slabs/slab’s/slabs’ of rock called tectonic plates. As the plates separate from each other, liquid rock below bubbles up, leading to an eruption. 

Lepretre Pierre/ Getty Images

This volcano is in Iceland, an island nation in the North Atlantic. The volcanoes/volcano’s/volcanoes’ name is Fagradalsfjall (FAH-grah-DAHLS-fee-
yahk), which means Mountain of the Beautiful Valley. Last March, a 650-foot crack opened up in the earth, and scorching-hot lava spewed up. The volcano was erupting for the first time in about 6,000 years/year’s/years’.

Reuters
Hungry? Maybe this scientist will share! He is cooking hot dogs on the volcano’s superheated rocks.

The good news is that most of Icelands/Iceland’s/Icelands’ volcanoes are not too dangerous. When they erupt, they don’t shoot fire and ash into the sky. Instead, they slowly ooze lava. So observing the eruption from a distance did not put the onlookers/onlooker’s/onlookers’ lives in danger. Still, no one aside from trained experts should get too close to lava. Not only is lava extremely hot (up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit), it can also produce toxic gases.

This article was originally published in the February 2022 issue.

video (1)
Activities (1)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
video (1)
Activities (1)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

Close Reading, Critical Thinking, Skill Building

1. INTRODUCE AND PRACTICE GRAMMAR SKILL

  • As a class, read Grammar’s HINT (found in the upper right corner of the second page) to introduce or review the plural and possessives addressed in the feature. Then read the annotations, which model the correct usage.
  • Have students practice the grammar skill by completing the activity as a class, in groups, or individually. In the activity, students choose which plural or possessive to use at several points within three short boxes of text.

2. REINFORCE SKILL

  • Use the plurals and possessives activity.
  • Have students observe plurals and possessives used in context by searching for examples of their use in the magazine or in other reading material.

EDITOR’S TIP

Challenge students to come up with their own plurals and possessives sentences. Have them trade their sentences with a partner. What words do your students confuse? We’d love your suggestions for future grammar activities.

E-mail us at [email protected].

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